Uzbekistan asks Georgia to grant "Fifth freedom of air" to its airlines

Uzbekistan has asked Georgia to provide its airlines with the "Fifth freedom of air", Trend reports citing the press service of Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

The fifth freedom allows an airline to carry revenue traffic between foreign countries as a part of services connecting the airline's own country. It is the right to carry passengers from one's own country to a second country and from that country to a third country (and so on).

This proposal was announced during the 11-th round of political consultations in Tashkent between the foreign ministries of the two countries.

"Uzbekistan Airways plans to open a flight on the route Tashkent-Tbilisi-Tashkent this year. In this connection, the Uzbek side raised with the Georgian delegation the question of the possible provision of Uzbek Airways with the "Fifth freedom of air", the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

For instance, Uzbekistan Airways, with hypothetical flights on the route Tashkent-Tbilisi-Baku, will be able to disembark passengers in Tbilisi, as well as take passengers on board to Baku.

For passengers, the presence of this agreement with the airline is beneficial due to cheap air tickets, in this case from Tbilisi to Baku and back. Due to the fact that some of the passengers fly only to Tbilisi, the airline always has empty seats on the route from Tbilisi to Baku, which it tries to load as much as possible, using reduced prices.